


Runaway Bride

by fanetjuh



Series: Jonsa Week [47]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Jon Snow is a Targaryen, the targaryens still rule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 20:01:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17567063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanetjuh/pseuds/fanetjuh
Summary: Sansa Stark is forced to marry the Targaryen crown prince, but being stuck in a loveless marriage for the rest of her life is not how she had envisioned their future. And now Jon Targaryen has to go after her. To protect her. And to get to know the girl who had the courage to do what he wanted to do for years already.





	Runaway Bride

“Come on, faster!” Sansa Stark yelled at her horse while the early morning wind blew in her face. Her cheeks were almost as red as her hair and her heart was trying to break her ribs in two. Her entire body begged for her to stop, to stand still, to take a break. And her body wasn’t the only one. But Sansa Stark didn’t have time for a break. She didn’t have time to stop. She didn’t have time to stand still. She had to make sure there was as much distance between her and Winterfell as possible before her parents would notice she was gone.

“Do you trust me, Sansa?” Her father had whispered, last night, right before he had pressed a soft kiss on her forehead and sent her to bed.

“Yes.” She had answered, even though she hadn’t meant it.

“I promise you’ll be happy.” 

But how could she be happy with a man she had never met? How could she be happy in a castle so far away from her parents, her family? How could she be happy when her hand was given away to form an alliance between the Targaryens and the Starks and not because Sansa had hopelessly fallen in love with a handsome prince? How could she be happy when all her dreams and hopes and wishes were shattered and broken as if they were nothing?

And so instead of wearing the beautiful wedding gown her mother and septa had made her to marry the Targaryen prince, Sansa had run away.

She didn’t know where she was going. It didn’t even matter. Everything was better than being a piece in a game her father had sworn not to play.

 

_“What do you mean she’s gone?” Jon raised his eyebrows when he stared at Samwell Tarly, Maester in training and the only friend he actually had._

_“Well…” Sam stuttered. He had his hands folded in front of him and stared at the wooden floor beneath his tapping feet. “Ned Stark just informed us that his daughter is nowhere to be found. The…” Sam swallowed. “The fresh snow makes it impossible to know where she has gone, but a horse disappeared from the stables too, so it looks like she deliberately ran away from you.”_

_“She doesn’t even know me.” Jon let out a deep sigh. “It’s not me she’s running from. It’s this stupid arranged marriage our parents forced us into she’s running from.”_

_“I'm sure they’ll find her back.” Sam looked up, but Jon stared out of the window, at the freshly fallen snow covering Winterfell._

_He was far away from home and far away from his father who had simply ordered him to go here to wed the Stark girl and to bring her with him to Dragonstone afterwards, preferably pregnant._

_And not once had he questioned his father’s decision. Not once had he wondered if the girl wanted to marry him. Not once had he thought about her happiness. Nor his own._

_But she had. She had simply taken matters into her own hands and had started running._

_And even though he should feel betrayed and left right now, he didn’t. He felt admiration for the girl refusing to bow for old rules that made hardly anyone happy. He felt admiration for the girl who chose her own happiness over politics and shady scheming. And he wished he had come up with the idea before she had had to._

_Because now he felt the desperate need to go find her and make sure she was safe and okay._

 

The roads leading her away from Winterfell were empty. It was too early in the morning for travellers, but it was already too light for the robbers who preferred operating in the dark.

Every few seconds Sansa looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t followed. In her mind she could hear the screaming voices of her father’s men chasing her, but every time she checked there was nothing but emptiness and a little more distance between her and the arranged marriage she was trying to flee from. 

“What is a pretty girl like you doing on this road all alone?”

Sansa pulled her hood a little further over her head to cover her eyes and red hair when a strange man approached her. He sat on a high horse, holding the reins firmly, but even with his back straight and his chin lifted she noticed that he was smaller than she was. Smaller, maybe, but years older and wiser too. 

“It's not safe to travel without an escorte.” The man approached her until their horses stood next to each other. He touched her hood with his fingers and a smile spread across his face when he removed her cover. “Sansa Stark…” He cocked his hand and the tips of his fingers touched her cheek when he pulled his hand back. “Shouldn't you be at your own wedding with the Targaryen prince right now?”

Sansa bent her head and avoided his glance. Yes, she should have been. But she didn’t want to be. “I'm exactly where I want to be.”

“Which is not where your parents want you to be.” The stranger kept on smirking and Sansa felt a shiver rolling down her spine. “You're just as beautiful as your mother.”

“You knew my mother?” Sansa furrowed her eyebrows and tried to relax, but failed hopelessly. 

“I didn’t just know her. I loved her. Which is why I will help you to escape a marriage that will make you unhappy.”

 

_“You sure this is where the trail ends?” Jon exchanged a glance with the white wolf circling around and around at the same spot. Jon had to admit that Sansa had gotten further than he had expected. “Fine, I trust you.” He climbed down from his horse and took a deep breath before he walked to the small tavern. “Ghost? Watch my horse for me, will you?”_

_It wouldn’t be the first time the horse would decide that exploring the world was much more interesting than waiting for his prince to return._

_And Jon couldn’t even blame him. There was a reason he was so impressed by Sansa Stark and her determination to outrun a future she didn’t want. He wished he had done the same, years ago already._

_“My apologies, sir, but I’m afraid we’re not open yet.” A dark haired girl looked up at him and Jon felt his heart skipping a beat in his chest. Her eyes were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen and even though her face was dirty and covered in sweat he noticed how pretty she was._

_Jon scratched the back of his neck. “I guess I’ll come back later then?” He wanted to turn around but the pretty girl reached for his arm and for a moment he stared at her fingers curled around his wrist._

_“We don’t have any food yet, but I can get you a beer?” She smiled and Jon couldn’t help but smiling back at her. “I'm Alayne Stone. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She reached out her hand and Jon placed his hand in hers._

_“Jon…” He swallowed his true last name at the very last moment. “Snow. Jon Snow.” The palm is his hand was sweating. “And the pleasure is mine.”_

 

Sansa knew that she was actually supposed to sweep floors and prepare the tavern to open, but the handsome stranger who had just walked in was a thousand times more interesting than the cover Petyr Baelish had arranged for her. “So, what do you do for a living?” She sipped from her own beer and watched Jon doing the same.

“Me?” Jon almost choked on his drink and he wiped his mouth while he put his mug down. “I'm a…” He hesitated for a moment.

“You don’t need to be afraid of your job. I’m a tavern maid. I can handle everything.” Sansa smiled and she reached for his hand. 

But Jon avoided her glance and bit his bottom lip. “I'm a farmer.”

“A farmer?” Sansa raised her eyebrows. “You don’t sound like one…” She quickly closed her mouth. “I mean…” She sighed. “I don’t know what I mean.” She bent her head and then she realised she was still holding his hand. “Sorry…” She quickly pulled her hand away.

“Don't worry, it’s fine.” Jon smiled and Sansa smiled back at him. “So…” He licked his lips. “How long have you been working here already?”

Sansa felt her cheeks heating up and this time it was her turn to hesitate. “A couple of days, actually.” More like a couple of hours, but that was not something she was going to admit out loud. Not even to a handsome stranger who seemed to stare straight into her soul when he looked at her.

“And?” Jon lifted his chin a little. “Do you like it?”

Sansa shrugged her shoulders. “It’s better than the alternative.” 

An unhappy life with a man she hadn’t even met and would never love.

 

_Jon furrowed his eyebrows and once again he let his eyes wander over the pretty black haired girl in front of him. The apron she was wearing seemed slightly too big and just like he didn’t sound like a farmer, she didn’t sound like a tavern girl. And the hand that had touched him so gently had been soft, as if it wasn’t used to hard work like this._

_He thought about his horse and Ghost, about how Ghost had circled around here, in front of the tavern. From what he had heard the runaway princess had bright red hair, but changing the color of your hair wasn’t that hard._

_And who would look for a princess here, in a tavern, sweeping the floors and covered in dust and ashes?_

_“My parents never wanted me to become a farmer either.” He swallowed. He knew he should tell her who he was and why he was here. He knew he should tell her that he knew who she was and why she was here. But he didn’t want to be the man who simply dragged her back to her duty. He didn’t want to be the man dragging them both back to their duty._

_“What did your parents do?” Sansa, Alayne, cocked her head and Jon curled his lips up into a smile._

_“They were nobles. Farming was way beneath them, but…” He realised that the lie came this easy because it was the truth. If he could have, he would have become a farmer, growing his own crops and taking care of a few sheep and cows. “I followed my heart anyway.”_

_If only he had truly been brave enough to do so. If only he had done what Sansa, Alayne, had done._

 

Sansa wasn’t sure what made her new life so easy. Maybe sweeping floors and serving unthankful customers wasn’t as bad as she had always imagined it to be. Or maybe it was the company of Jon Snow, who always seemed to brighten her mood whenever she was losing her patience. 

During the day he helped her with all her tasks, cleaning the tables and cooking the food. And in the evenings they talked, while they shared the leftovers and stared at the million stars above them until they were almost asleep and had to force themselves to stand up to go and find their beds.

Sansa had a small room in the attic. Spiderwebs covered the ceiling and the planks creaked when she stepped on them, but somehow the warm bed and the echoes of her conversations with Jon were all she needed to have nice and pleasant dreams.

This was why she had run away from home, from an arranged marriage and an unhappily ever after. This was what she had hoped to find in the world. 

“Jon?” The cold evening wind blew in her face, but Sansa turned towards the handsome boy with the dark curls next to her. “The last couple of weeks have been the best weeks of my life.” She pressed the palm of her hand to his stubbled cheek. “I wish it could last forever.”

Jon rolled on his side to face her and he locked his glance with hers. “Don’t you think it can?” There was a certain sadness in his eyes and Sansa already felt guilty for destroying the one thing that had made her happy lately. 

“No…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Because I haven’t been absolutely honest with you.” A tear escaped her eye. “And I can never be. And I’m sorry about that, because I think you could have been my happily ever after. But how can you truly love me, if I can never tell you who I really am?”

 

_Jon wiped a few loose strands of dark black hair from Sansa’s face and then his lips curled up into a smile. “I already know, Sansa Stark.” He whispered her name and it surprised him how pleasant it felt to let it roll off his tongue. “It took me five minutes to figure it out.”_

_Sansa pushed herself up and she widened her eyes while she shook her head in disbelief. “You knew? You knew all this time?”_

_Jon nodded and pushed himself up too. “You're not the only one who lied, though.” Jon moved a little closer towards her. “I'm not a farmer, no matter how badly I wanted to be one.” He swallowed, but didn’t give Sansa the time to interrupt him. “I'm Jon Targaryen, the crown prince of Westeros and the man you were supposed to marry.”_

_For a moment Sansa just stared at him. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when she couldn’t find the right words. It was the first time in weeks Jon found Sansa absolutely speechless._

_“I'm sorry.” Jon bent his head, but he felt Sansa’s hand grabbing his chin to force him to look up again._

_“What are we gonna do now? Are we going back? Get married and become the next king and queen of Westeros?”_

_“Is that what you want?” Jon swallowed. Their noses brushed each other and he could feel the warmth of Sansa’s breath on his face. “What do you want Sansa Stark?”_

_“You…” She pressed her soft lips on his and Jon held his breath for a short second before he kissed her back. “I just want you.”_

_Jon let his hands go through her black hair and he closed his eyes while his lips parted to let her tongue in. “Do you want the prince or the farmer?”_

_Sansa pulled back and swallowed. “Is the farmer truly an option?” There was a longing in her voice that echoed his own desires, his wishes, his dreams. She voiced the fire that had made her run away, the jealousy he had felt when she had actually done what he had not dared to do for way too long and she most of all captured the simple future they both wanted._

_“I think if we really want this, we can do this.”_

 

Once again Sansa left in the early morning on the back of her horse. Once again she was yelling her horse to run faster and faster. But this time she was not leaving alone.

Jon Targaryen, Jon Snow or whatever his name would be once they’d reach the town where they’d start their new future, was riding next to her.

They’d leave everything behind. Their crowns, their castles, the fake identity Petyr Baelish had given her. And yet, they’d have everything they’d ever wanted and needed.

They would be whoever they wanted to be. They would do whatever they wanted to do. 

And they would really get their happily ever after.


End file.
